Yep, "tree" for three (3). I had forgotten that one. That's another one that you actually hear very seldom. Do hear "niner" a lot. I don't say that in public as my wife managed to break me on that one :-) Once, over thirty years ago, we had a running QSO on I-40 with WB5UGM. Nice guy. His phonetics for that... "we bought five ugly green monkeys"... I'll never forget that one. Summer of 1975 we ran a great field day with a call of K0KS... Killer Shark... Jaws had just finished its run in theaters!

Even the US military got rid of it, and for a good reason.1st thing that happens, is you strain to hear what the guy is saying. Most of the time they are using wrong terms, not to mention, that there is no real standard (well there is, but its not working, as there are different sets of code out there) This is Billy Bob, Electricity, telephone buy now your thinking is he billy bob is he saying BB and why is this taking so long. Now at this point the conditions start to waver or you get a knob tuning up his radio because as he hears you talking, and you miss out on the rest.OK how about this ..This is BLT55, great I got it and only took 2 seconds, short to the point. You may want to use phonetics if you missed it or conditions are so bad you cant hear him, but heck if the conditions are that bad and you cant hear them, turn off the radio.just my 2 cents

No offense towards you but apparently you have not operated 75 or 40 meter SSB much since you have been licensed. If you have then it has been during very quiet hours without 10/9 static crashes.

Trust me, phonetics are a must on those bands at times. Any band for that matter. I am an NCS on ONTARS for one hour a week and I need check ins to use phonetics when the band is noisy.

Really? I frequently use it on the telephone; most recently with my pharmacy when ordering a prescription refill and, even in some extreme cases, face to face!

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No, that is A phonetic alphabet. It is not THE fonetic alfabet.

The correct name for the one to which you refer is the "International Phonetic Alphabet". I first learned it in 1958 as a prerequisite to obtaining my Student Pilot License. At the time, it was stipulated that the words were to be pronounced in "American English" (throughout the world, interestingly enough) which, somewhere along the line has changed, now depending in which part of the world the speaker is located. So, all you hams that like to add a "European" (or Canadian) touch, in the US, Papa is NOT correct. The correct pronunciation is Papa (no accent, either syllable).

As someone who uses HF almost exclusively (OK, so it's also almost exclusively CW) it's hard to imagine anyone who would seriously think that it's "time to dump the phonetics".

In fact, even on FM repeaters I've often asked other ops (they seem to be the most clueless hams on the planet) for their calls in phonetics. Maybe they are so used to talking to the same 2-3 guys that they've haven't used phonetics in years, maybe it's something else.

Also, using the same phonetics over and over during the same exchange with same station (say in a contest or DXing) is bull-headed. If he keeps getting your call wrong, CHANGE THE PHONETICS.

I use (and am supposed to use) November Two Mike Golf. But that's heard as November Two Mike Alpha. (The 'K' at the end of "Mike" blends with the 'G' at the start of "Golf"). So if it's heard incorrectly I go back with Norway Two Mexico Germany.

I also agree with the previous mention in the posts - even over the telephone I've used phonetics (though I try to use "less obviously geeky" terms like Adam or Dog (still, "Foxtrot" always comes out). For "B5D7" I'll say something like "B as in Baker, the number FIVE, D as in Dog, the number SEVEN..." etc.

I routinely use phonetics, even on 2 metre. "E" can sound like a ton of other letters, after all, and for some reason people find my callsign to be a little difficult; I'm not sure why. (I'm thinking that should go away on CW, when I'm up to doing it, though.)

I also make a point to always use standard phonetics. Maybe sometime in poor conditions if standard phonetics aren't working, I will try an alternative but if people are expecting to hear standard phonetics, it's a lot easier to figure out what's going on, in my opinion.

I just about died of laughter Saturday when I heard a call ending in -GOW announce himself as "Grumpy Old Woman". Yes, I did do a QSO with him - I couldn't NOT do it - but it isn't the best practice.

Nothing wrong with the standard phonetic alphabet,it's just when the cutesy boys make up their own like N1WGH (Number One Worlds Greatest Ham)

One should realize the difference between a mnemonic tool and a phonetic tool.

If N1WGH wanted you to remember his call, then "Number One Worlds Greatest Ham" would probably be ideal. But if he wanted you to copy his call through heavy QRM/QRN, then a nice, slow repetition of "November One Whiskey Golf Hotel" might be far more appropriate.

On most bandwidth limited channels, it is impossible to tell the difference between F and S. This is especially true on telephones, for example. If you don't believe me, test it yourself sometime. B and D are also tough to decipher.

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